[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 58 (Tuesday, March 27, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14278-14279]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 07-1481]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request; 
Proposed Projects

    Title: DHHS/ACF/ASPE/DOL Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ 
Demonstration and Evaluation: Kansas and Missouri 36-Month Data 
Collection
    OMB No.: New Collection
    Description: The Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ 
Demonstration and Evaluation Project (HtE) seeks to learn what services 
improve the employment prospects of low-income persons who face serious 
obstacles to steady work. The project is sponsored by the Office of 
Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) within the Administration for 
Children and Families (ACF) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary 
for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), both within the U.S. Department of 
Health and Human Services (HHS), and the U.S. Department of Labor 
(DOL).
    The HtE project is a multi-year, multi-site evaluation that employs 
an experimental longitudinal research design to test four strategies 
aimed at promoting employment among hard-to-employ populations. The 
four strategies include; (1) Intensive care management and job services 
project for Rhode Island Medicaid recipients with serious depression; 
(2) job readiness training, worksite placements, job coaching, job 
development and other training opportunities for recent parolees in New 
York City; (3) pre-employment services and transitional employment for 
long-term participants receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy 
Families (TANF), and (4) two-generational Early Head Start (EHS) 
services providing enhanced self-sufficiency services for parents, 
parent skills training, and high-quality child care for children in 
low-income families in Kansas and Missouri.
    The purpose of this document is to request public comment on the 
proposed 36-month parent survey and direct child assessments in Kansas 
and Missouri. The research team plans to collect parent-reported survey 
assessing parents' employment, education and economic outcomes, child 
outcomes, as well as aspects of parental psychological well-being, 
parenting, family functioning and routines, and child care use. This 
data collection effort will also include direct assessments of young 
children's cognitive, socioemotional and behavioral development.
    The follow-up survey and direct child assessments at the 36-month 
follow-up in Kansas and Missouri will be used for the following 
purposes: To study the extent to which EHS services with enhanced self-
sufficiency services (enhanced EHS services) affect employment, 
earnings, income, and welfare dependence of low-income parents with 
young children; to study the impacts of enhanced EHS services on child 
well-being and school readiness; to examine the impacts of enhanced EHS 
services on key aspects of parental psychological well-being, 
parenting, family functioning and routines, and child care that might 
account for the effects of the intervention on young children; to 
collect data on a wider range of outcome measures than is available 
through welfare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Social Security, and 
Unemployment Insurance records.
    The 36-month data collection effort draws heavily from the 15-month 
survey and direct child assessments conduced in this site. Materials 
for the survey and direct child assessments for the 15-month data 
collection effort were previously submitted to OMB and were approved 
(OMB Control No. 0970-026).
    Respondents: The target population of the HtE project in Kansas and 
Missouri is low-income pregnant women and families with infants and 
toddlers.
    The respondents to the 36-month data collection effort will be all 
participants in the program and the control groups of the HtE project 
in Kansas and Missouri. Parents will be responding to a survey. 
Children between the ages of 2 and 7 years old at the 36-month follow-
up will be asked to participate in direct child assessments aimed at 
understanding their emotional, behavioral, and cognitive development 
and school readiness.
    The annual burden estimates are detailed below, and the substantive 
content of each component will be detailed in the supporting statement 
attached to the forthcoming 30-day notice.

                                             Annual Burden Estimates
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                                                                     Number of        Average
                   Instrument                        Number of    responses  per   burden hours    Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent     per response        hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KS/MO 36-month parent survey....................             610               1             .75          457.50
KS/MO 36-month direct child assessments.........             610               1             .50          305.00
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    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 762.50.
    In compliance with the requirements of Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Administration for Children and 
Families is soliciting public comment on the specific aspects of the 
information collection described above. Copies of the proposed 
collection of information can be obtained and comments may be forwarded 
by writing to the Administration for Children and Families, Office of 
Information Services, 370 L'Enfant Promenade, SW.,

[[Page 14279]]

Washington, DC 20447, Attn: ACF Reports Clearance Officer. All requests 
should be identified by the title of the information collection.
    The Department specifically requests comments on: (a) Whether the 
proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper 
performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the 
information shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the 
agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of 
information; (c) the quality, utility, and clarity of the information 
to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection 
of information on respondents, including through the use of automated 
collection techniques or other forms of information technology. 
Consideration will be given to comments and suggestions submitted 
within 60 days of this publication.

    Dated: March 20, 2007.
Robert Sargis,
Reports Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 07-1481 Filed 3-26-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-M